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Apple’s iPhone 7 | What to expect!

It should be a surprise to no-one that 2015 largely played out like 2014, and much the same as the several years prior to that. Apple launched its annual iPhone revamp, in this case the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, and the duo pretty much cleaned up in terms of sales and profits, outperforming all key rivals in the smartphone space.

2016 is the year of the iPhone 7. With sales stalling for the first time in the iPhone’s history, Apple needs to pull something truly impressive out of the bag to bring the love back, and now’s as good a time as any to gather up the best iPhone 7 rumors swirling around.

Apple is more secretive than the CIA

There was a time when we simply heard of a new handset and a handful of details within about four-to-six months of its launch, but these days we’re hearing about next-gen devices before the current-gen has even been officially announced.

Major Apple iPhone 7 Design leaks have finally hit the Web. Yeah! Given the fickle, impatient nature of the tech industry and our insatiable need for something faster, thinner and with a new design – the iPhone 7 is already being tipped as one of the most eagerly awaited additions to the 2016 smartphone roster. We now know a little bit more about what Apple is planning to do with respect to the industrial design of its next generation flagship iPhones. Here are all the important iPhone 7 rumors I’ve heard so far…

Incredible Design

So far, it seems as though from an industrial design perspective, the next generation iPhones will be highly refined versions of the already very successful iPhone 6/6 Plus.

Sleek: Apple may be attempting to streamline some exterior design features of the iPhone 7 for a much sleeker appearance. The new iPhones should be quite a bit thinner than the current iPhone 6s/6s Plus phones, which measure in at thicknesses of 7.1 millimeters and 7.3 millimeters, respectively. Apple is aiming for a thickness of between 6 millimeters and 6.5 millimeters.

Rear Camera bump: The new iPhones will see the elimination of the rear camera bump that many thought ‘looked bad’. The iPhone 7 is said to feature a flush, flat rear, letting the lens sit in line with the aluminium casing.

Antenna Bands: Elimination of a good portion of the antenna bands found on the back of the current iPhone 6/6s series designs. Antenna bands will sit only on the upper and lower edges, instead of extending across the width of the handset.

Display: The new design features a full 5-inch display that covers the entire front panel, paving the way for immersive gaming and videos. The back panel also packs a secondary display, though it’s limited to widgets and a personalized background image. The entire device appears to be semi-transparent thanks to a new liquid metal design, and it’s just 3mm thick.

Go 3D

Home Button: Tim Cook and co. also want to retire the iPhone’s home button. The suggestion is that iPhone’s fingerprint reader could be integrated with the screen itself, enabling users to essentially scan their prints anywhere. Apple will create a soft key or add a new feature to 3D Touch, which is itself bound to be improved.

3D Touch: 3D Touch will, of course, make an appearance too, but there’s also fresh talk that Apple plans a switch from LCD to OLED technology.

Awesome Battery

Apple is working hard to improve the iPhone’s battery life. A larger 3,100mAh battery is music to our ears, a huge update on iPhone 6s Plus which features a 2570mAh battery and still produces some of the best battery performance we’ve seen on any smartphone to date.

Apple faces something of a “tug of war”. On one hand, developing higher performance cameras and displays are already quite difficult. By trying to advance both camera and display technology while simultaneously making the device slimmer, Apple and its suppliers face a substantially bigger challenge.

Dual-Camera System

Apple needs to deliver a significant improvement in camera technology/quality relative to the prior generation. The iPhone 7 Plus may come equipped with a dual-camera configuration, complete with an optical zoom capability. Dual-camera system would allow for higher quality images and maybe even an optical zoom.

Faster processing

It also needs to include a faster processor, add a substantially enhanced (and potentially higher resolution) display, and more goodies. A new storage option, a 256GB iPhone is in the works.

iPhone 7 will be more powerful than the iPhone 6S. There have been mutterings of the inclusion of an impressive-sounding hexa-core A10 chip, though that would represent a massive step up from the dual-core processor in the iPhone 6S. RAM, however, is likely to stay at 2GB.

Qualcomm currently supplies the LTE chips in iPhones. Their 9X45 LTE chip is inside all iPhones–and they have been for years. But is Intel designing the next Ax chip? In the iPhone 7 this chipset will probably be called the A10 (the one that comes after the current A9 in the iPhone 6s).

Wireless & Water-proof

Wireless Charging: Apple’s working on a new wireless charging technology, which would allow users to power up their phones without direct contact with a power mat. Imagine a wireless solar-powered charging, so your iPhone powers up automatically whenever you’re in the sun.

Water-proof: The iPhone 7 is rumored to be officially “water proof”, and comes with special new camera software designed for underwater photography. I wouldn’t count on taking the iPhone 7 deep-sea diving or leaving it at the bottom of the pool all summer though.

Headphones: The headphone jack will be replaced by an all-in-one Lightning connector for both charging and audio, but there’s also talk of Apple simply working on wireless earphones. Apple is also reportedly working on developing new wireless Beats headphones, in addition to developing a new Bluetooth in-ear headphone to be named “AirPods”.

Make some Sound

Stereo: Apple is keen on improving the iPhone 7’s stereo performance, bringing it more in-line with HTC’s BoomSound and the like. Apple engineers will utilize an “audio chamber” to create bigger, better sounds from the iPhone’s built in speaker system.

Headphones: Speaking of sound it is rumored that the iPhone 7 will come with headphones that connect via its Lightning port instead of the 3.5mm audio jack.

Of course, there’s no way the actual iPhone 7 will be as exciting as this imagined version, though it’s possible Apple could include at least a few of these suggested improvements when it unveils the new device later this year. Rumor has it, Apple has as many as five different prototypes and is deliberating over which one (or ones) will be pushed forward for further development, and ultimately a release as the next flagship (or flagship variant). Apple, more than ever, needs to convince buyers to upgrade to next generation devices.

Brace yourself. This would of course be the top tier iPhone, and it would likely cost an absolute fortune. It looks like Apple will stick with tradition and launch the iPhone 7 alongside an iPhone 7 Plus at a special event in California in September.

That’s all we know for now, but stay tuned for all the latest iPhone 7 news and rumors as new details emerge. Please leave a reply if you know any other rumor making rounds 😉